Happy New Year. Trusting the prediction of the end of the world by the Mayan Calendar will be somewhat an exaggeration, we've got a few forecasts and some concrete gossip to start the new year off. We hope it's a great one for you!

Signature 5-string, guitar body from Idaho Super Builder, Austin Clark. We've been in love with the Clark JM 2-point signature mandolin from the moment we set hands on it. It's sonic prowess and playability rivals instruments three times the price, so we're back commissioning for a new design. It's still somewhat on the drawing board, but let's say it will be a guitar body 5-string, probably more dola than mando, and with all the incredible craftsmanship the world has come to expect out of this legend.

New flatwound strings from D'Addario. We're stealing some of the thunder from their NAMM announcement in three weeks, but working in tandem with Mike Marshall and our team of beta-testers, your in for a great surprise in a classical, flatwound string from the industry's leading manufacturer. We've had a set on most of the year, and we're hooked. Look for official news after the 20th of January.

Artist Interviews. We've collaborated with the Mandolin Cafe on some extensive "10 question" articles from the likes of Will Patton, Paul Glasse, Aaron Weinstein, Don Julin, and John McGann. We also brought you some of these in our Mandolin Sessions articles on tone. This year, we want to do a few more frequent short punches with more of the industry's greats and their approaches to playing right here on the JazzMando site.

Import guitar body mandolin. We're in negations again with a major import builder on some potential new 8-string designs. Let's just say we hope to capture some of the "lore."

Enhanced JD13 mandola strings. We've had some problems with the stock string fitting the longer scale instruments, and the Weber tailpiece, and have a fix in mind.

Chord Playing Cards. We've included a few of these free in some of our recent orders. A design misprint has halted this temporarily, but we hope to get back to this in another week, and handy complimentary reference "playing card" included in every order.

JazzMando V-pick specials. This has been wildly popular. Look for periodic package specials later this year.